A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
November 21, 2007
3. Watersheds
River bill taps nuclear money; Energy firms oppose plan to use their funds to restore San Joaquin - Fresno Bee
Salmon: Smallest run on Russian River in 8 years - Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Decontamination effort winding down; Outpouring of help speeds cleanup of fouled beaches - San Francisco Chronicle
BAY AND DELTA ESTUARIES:
Guest Column: The Dirt: Native plants vs. exotics in restoring tidal marshes - San Francisco Chronicle
DELTA ISSUES:
Letters to the Editor: Delta water woes - San Francisco Chronicle
River bill taps nuclear money; Energy firms oppose plan to use their funds to restore San Joaquin
By Michael Doyle, staff writer
Publicly, Congress is adjourned. Privately, lawmakers, staff and lobbyists are still maneuvering over a
Companies including Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric Co. are weighing in, warning against using nuclear energy dollars for
"Of course I support the terms of the river settlement," said Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, "but I can't support a tax increase."
Radanovich was the original House author of a bill that helps settle a 1988 lawsuit filed by environmentalists unhappy with the operations of Friant Dam. The lawsuit settlement, and subsequent legislation, would restore water flows below the dam and restock the
Democratic Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, recently supplanted Radanovich as the bill's author. The legislation won approval last week from the House Natural Resources Committee on a party-line vote. Costa said the bill's details will be perfected.
"We're not going to move the bill until next January or February," Costa predicted.
The revised House bill, with an estimated federal price tag of $500 million, took money from oil and gas companies working in the Gulf of Mexico to fund the
Although no final decisions have been made, lawmakers anticipate turning to another source of money, called the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund.
Nuclear energy companies pay into the fund to offset the massive cleanup costs associated with uranium enrichment at three federal facilities in
"The cleanup of these plants ... will cost billions of dollars and could span several decades," Government Accountability Office executive Robin Nazzaro told a Senate panel last week.
The fund, established in 1992, has collected up to $150 million annually from the nuclear power industry. The industry contributions are due to expire this year. Because much more work remains on the plants, Congress is considering extending the industry payments.
Environmentalists say that with utility industry revenues exceeding $298 billion annually, the industry can easily afford to continue the payments. Industry officials aren't necessarily opposed to extending the fund if changes are made, but they want the money focused on the nuclear energy issues.
Lobbyists for individual companies as well as the nuclear industry have been fanning out to make their case on Capitol Hill.
"Our position is quite simple: The D&D fund should be used for its intended purpose -- to clean up and dismantle the three facilities," Nuclear Energy Institute spokesman Mitch Singer said.
"This has nothing to do with the
A
"Their ultimate game plan is to raise taxes on someone," Nunes said. #
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/211228.html
Salmon: Smallest run on
Santa Rosa Press Democrat – 11/21/07
By Bob Norberg, staff writer
The fall run of chinook salmon started slowly on the
So far, 950 fish have been counted passing through the Sonoma County Water Agency's fish ladder near
"It's not looking terrific, and the fish appear to be later than usual," said Sean White, a Water Agency fisheries biologist. "It should be over by now and it's not."
A summer conservation order was issued by the state to ensure there was sufficient water in the
"The run is on the weak side this year," said Andrew Van Scoyk, manager of the Rowdy Creek Hatchery on the
However, White said, the Russian River has the North Coast's most significant run of wild chinook, which are listed as endangered by the federal Endangered Species Act.
Chinook, which can weigh in at 50 pounds, are native to the
It always was assumed that there were a few chinook in the
That was the first time the fish were counted and since then they have been monitored from their arrival in late August until the dam is lowered, typically in November or early December.
"Chinook are the signature species of
In June, faced with low levels in
The state order resulted in a 21.6 percent reduction as the Water Agency's major customers, the cities and districts from
The water was saved in
Until this year, the smallest run was in 2001, when 1,383 chinook were counted. The best year was 2003, when 6,103 were counted. Last year, 3,410 were counted. Biologists suspect that the cause is unfavorable ocean conditions, such as a decline in the population of krill, a tiny shrimp, at the
Chinook salmon return to the ocean almost as soon as they are born, needing to find krill to feed on before moving up to herring and anchovies.
"It may make them more sensitive, they have to have smaller feed when they get out there," Van Scoyk said.
White said that since chinook have only been monitored for eight years, it may be too early to be concerned.
"With any species there are cycles of boom and bust," White said. "To see either of those is not necessarily indicative of an issue. It may be part of the natural cycle of things. It becomes an issue if you see it over a series of years and a series of generations."
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20071121/NEWS/711210327/1033/NEWS01
By Diana Jorgenson, staff writer
Roads surrounding the
Streams had to establish one clear testing, while the lake water is required to have three consecutive "no-detect" readings before access was re-established. Authorities cleared the streams last week, but two ponds unrelated to the lake were still showing signs of chemicals.
In order to open outlying areas to the public, the ponds were roped off and remain closed along with the lake, but the rest of the national forest was re-opened.
The new closure area includes
The closure order and related map are posted on the Plumas National Forest Web site fs.fed.us/r5/plumas or DFG's Web site, dfg.ca.gov/news.
Water quality test results from the Department of Health Services and DFG have been slow in coming. At a special meeting of the Pike Steering Committee Nov. 8, Dr. David Spath of DHS reported on the current findings.
Spath reported that an initial review of Oct. 22 water samples "indicate that rotenone and MP (methyl pyyrolidone) are below detection levels throughout the lake water and the rotenolone, DEGEE (diethylene glycol monoethyl ether), and Fennedefo 99 continue to dissipate."
Spath expected that an analysis of Oct. 29 and Nov. 5 water samples should be forthcoming. The complete set of the Department of Public Health results are contained in the Lake Davis DPH Results file online.
In explaining to steering committee members as to why test results have been slow in coming, Spath explained, "...there initially was a significant difference between the rotenone results reported by the Department of Public Health (DPH) and DFG labs.
After discussions between the labs, we concluded that the initial DPH results were probably high due to technical issues with the DPH analytical procedure. "Those technical issues have been resolved and as you can see, the results are now quite consistent between the two labs. Ironically, we carried out inter-laboratory studies prior to the treatment and those technical issues did not manifest themselves at that time,"
He also described peculiar challenges that the labs faced. "In addition, the analysis for the Fennedefo 99 constituents has been a challenge. As a reminder, Fennedefo 99 contains chemicals, principally polyethylene glycol compounds that assist in dispersing the rotenone. Both DPH and DFG labs have found that when we added a specific amount of Fennedefo 99 to lake water and the same amount to high-quality laboratory water, the analysis would always show a higher amount of Fennedefo 99 in the lake water - essentially more than (what) was added. "Although we are not able to determine why this happens, we have had to adjust our analysis to compensate for this anomaly." #
http://plumasnews.com/news_story.edi?sid=5691
Decontamination effort winding down; Outpouring of help speeds cleanup of fouled beaches
San Francisco Chronicle – 11/21/07
By Christopher Heredia, staff writer
Thanks to an overwhelming response from Good Samaritans after the San Francisco Bay oil spill, volunteers are needed this weekend to clean only a few beaches in Marin County, while expert decontamination crews work on harder-to-reach rocky areas around Angel Island and the East Bay waterfront, officials said Tuesday.
"Most of the cleanup is winding down," said Andrew Munoz, spokesman for the unified command overseeing response to the Nov. 7 spill of 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel when a container ship struck the base of a
On Saturday, the Marin County Fire Department will hold a four-hour training session for volunteers interested in helping with beach cleanup. Officials warn that untrained people should not touch tar balls or other oily waste because of health hazards.
Participants in Saturday's training will receive protective equipment and lessons in safely collecting waste.
Fire Captain Jason Weber said volunteers have been indispensable in the cleanup.
"Especially on the coast - Muir, Stinson and Bolinas beaches - volunteers have been a critical link setting up booms across Bolinas lagoon," Weber said. "Their local knowledge has been invaluable. This weekend, we plan to continue those efforts in West Marin."
Meanwhile, "hot shot" decontamination teams of private and government workers are paying visits to beaches hardest hit by the spill, while two Richmond and Oakland companies hope to get a piece of the cleanup action and do good by the environment.
Blue Sky Bio-fuels of
"It's a happy circle," said CytoCulture founder Randall von Wedel, a research biochemist. "We're collecting used cooking oil from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and turning it into fuel and also are able to turn that same cooking oil into a solvent that may be used to combat shoreline spills."
Von Wedel's company and Blue Sky Bio-fuels plan a demonstration Wednesday for government officials responsible for overseeing the cleanup from the Cosco Busan spill.
The advantage of using the biosolvent, von Wedel said, is that unlike its chemical counterpart, it causes tar accumulating on rocky shorelines to float to the water's surface and be caught by absorbent booms. Chemical solvents, on the other hand, cause the waste oil to sink to the bottom of the bay, further threatening the environment and bay creatures.
"Everything added to the bay has an impact, and in large quantities this (biosolvent) would harm underwater mussels, oysters and other crustacea, but we apply it in a surgical fashion, spot by spot with hand sprayers," von Wedel said.
Nearly 1,100 workers have responded thus far to the oil spill. Officials said 19,466 gallons of the bunker fuel had been collected as of early Tuesday, and approximately 4,060 gallons had evaporated.
Officials have linked 1,682 bird deaths to the spill, while environmental experts say untold numbers of wildlife were sickened or killed. More than 680 birds have been cleaned, and 73 have been returned to the wild. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/21/MNKITG3OQ.DTL
BAY AND DELTA ESTUARIES:
Guest Column: The Dirt: Native plants vs. exotics in restoring tidal marshes
San Francisco Chronicle – 11/21/07
By Ron Sullivan and Joe Eaton, freelance nature and garden writers in Berkeley
Suddenly, the
Scientists and policy-makers gathered for three days at the Scottish Rite Temple near
Although endangered tideland animals like the
Plant ecologist Peter Baye asked whether these efforts can recapture the natural plant diversity of the bay's marshes. Peggy Olofson, who heads the San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project, described the struggle to keep an undesirable exotic from taking over newly restored marshland.
Baye compared two side-by-side
"Muzzi still has mostly single-species-dominant vegetation types," said Baye. "Even after 30 years, it has only the most common, widespread, fast-dispersing species. Its overall diversity is quite low compared with Heerdt."
Case in point: An uncommon plant called the northern salt marsh bird's-beak, a root parasite related to the paintbrushes and owl's clovers, still grows in Heerdt Marsh, among a few other spots around the
"High marsh shorelines should have high plant species diversity," Baye said. "Unless native vegetation gets established first, weeds dominate and hold their ground." That goes for newly created mudflats as well: "Simplified environments favor generalist pioneer species." Natives like the bird's-beak don't disperse and colonize as readily.
What can be done to give uncommon natives a leg up? Baye recommended building more varied topography into restored tidal marshes, using coarse sediments and woody debris. But the first step, he says, is to follow Aldo Leopold's maxim about tinkering with nature: Save all the pieces. That means preserving source populations of uncommon plants as a bank for restoration: "We're losing much of our biological capital for restoring tidal marsh diversity." Baye also advocated planting uncommon natives first, before the weeds get a foothold. Those weeds include the superweed smooth cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) - a
"New restoration projects invite Spartina invasion," said Olofson. "The soft sediment and quiescent waters are perfect incubators for its seedlings." She says 56 of 96 restoration projects, mostly in the
Native cordgrass (S. foliosa) is an integral part of the tidal marsh plant community. But hybrids of alterniflora and foliosa are something else altogether. "The hybrids seek out every open niche in the ecosystem," Olofson said. "They produce a hundred times more pollen and seed than the natives, and grow rapidly in the marsh using clonal runners."
The impact of the hybrid can be devastating. It degrades habitat for endangered mice and rails, converts tidal mudflats to meadows, threatens the survival of native cordgrass through genetic swamping, fills in storm water drainage channels and promotes breeding of mosquitoes.
Olofson's weed warriors have been attacking invasive cordgrass with a special aquatic formulation of the herbicide Roundup, found to be the least environmentally damaging of several treatment alternatives. It's sprayed from the air to minimize foot traffic in the fragile marsh. "Spray balls" suspended from helicopters are used for more precise targeting. Unfortunately, some affected marshes have high concentrations of clapper rails and workers have to avoid these sites during nesting season.
After three years of treatment, the Invasive Spartina Project has the upper hand on some sites. But it's too soon for a "mission accomplished" celebration. Thirty thousand acres with potential for restoration as tidal marsh could become Spartina habitat.
The weed has recently spread into two newly opened
It would be a wonderful thing if marsh restoration were just a matter of breaching a levee or two to restore tidal flow, and then
standing back and letting nature take its course, letting native plants move in at their own pace.
But we don't have that luxury. We and our fellow travelers have already perturbed things too much. It's going to take hands-on maintenance - planting and weeding on a grand scale - to bring our marshes back in their natural diversity, and keep them that way.
Resources
San Francisco Estuary Invasive Spartina Project: www.spartina.org. #
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/21/HOS9TCHUH.DTL&hw=water&sn=021&sc=194
DELTA ISSUES:
Letters to the Editor: Delta water woes
San Francisco Chronicle – 11/18/07
By Boni Brewer, Public Information Officer, Zone 7 Water Agency,
The Zone 7 Water Agency serving
The story certainly aimed to provide a big picture of a complex situation. But in discussing the historical context of today's delta water crisis and how the delta has changed since the 19th century, it's important to remember that some of the earliest upstream diverters are not connected with the State Water Project but supply water destined for the city of
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/18/CM88TB3CM.DTL
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